Harav Hershel Schachter - Asara B’Tevet

oh [Music] on behalf of OU Israel I want to formally and and really give D sakarov to Bea and specifically to their distinguished marra Rabbi wne shita who's here with us and our dear friend and colleague who we work very closely with Raba Joel kenigsberg and we thank you for for constantly constantly your constant encouragement and sweet sweet friendship and partnership throughout the entire year it's a greato for us here in to welcome the Riva RAB Shak of course is also the senior post sake for o kosher and therefore every time Riva is here inim he avails himself to the OU to be able to share Torah with the at large it's a great to welcomeu see how it's going to work yeah okay uh good evening everybody Shalom after the destruction of the first B the Jewish people who lived in bosel introduced the minog it wasn't wasn't they introduced as a minog to observe a and so on after 70 years of gas B when the Jewish people came back there it's Isel and they built the B so a group of people sent a message to the Nim to the prophets who were in should we still continue to fast should I still cry starting from this this is the first mon in the Jewish calendar so all is the fifth month should we still cry out as we were crying for the last 70 years so what kind of a silly question is that the whole idea of fasting on you don't have a but if you built it by sh so what are you crying about so you have to look in the theim say that the oldtimers let's say 80 years and older they were 10 years old when the first destroy IR rememberable and now 70 years later said they see they mean is missing a lot of things they was angry at maybe we should go back a little bit go back a lot more just to understand the background on the occasion of the the says all the place were crying terrible tragedy the gave a a report so was angry the has expression he said what are you crying for you crying for nothing I give you what to cry so the Not That explicit but in in it says explicitly they were told on the occasion of the they told already then when they'll re when they'll come to Isel and that build the bdash they will be sent into goas and the BD will not last it'll be destroyed so when built the first they already know that was it was do to be destroyed according to were told that by the occasion so then who built the firsts and what's going to be with the second BD that'll be built after the seven years god mother will that also be destroyed or would that be Everlasting nature so is one thing and has an additional level of interpretation the if after the seven years everyone will return back to then second be like a metal structure is metal wooden buildings R away from the snow and the rain metal buildings you can destroy the World Trade Center if you drop bombs but it's not going to ride away by itself so that's what after the 70 years of all the Jews will return back is then the second will not r r will not in understands on levels the second will not R away won't be destroyed number two R but not set in in the Jewish people loves us and he sends us when we do our he sends us to give us to so he won't have to punish us so if all the Jews will return back to neither will the B right away won't be destroyed L will nor will we be lack again in the r will not set in in the Jewish people however interprets anybody will return back then second B will be like ar ar is wood CED wood and it'll ride away not only the second B will right away the Jewish people will right away we won't have any more what happened with how many people came back very the say 40,000 would change it was less than 50,000 way less than 50% of the Jewish people so the r writes in one place when Ezra built the second knew from day number one that the is to be and he leads to a certain position based on that fact and there weren't going to be any except to build a b requires he have to have approval you have to have authorization of that's when the is talking about building the so the expression used in the is so sent three and they were the last that the Jewish people had and each one gave and part of the story what you three them could at one so suggest that was so angry he didn't want to give onei to Long each one had one s and all the three Nas were necessary to build the B sheni properly so the was one of the three who was involved and he's encouraging to build the this is what desires the expression in in is the this is my desire the I will be honored I will be honored if you build me a base so the says the word without a at the end so you could have read what do you have but missing a so why are you what you make it into a it says read says no the correct pronunciation and it's missing a and that represents the idea major things are missing in the B which are the five major things so the the first PA gives you at least of which five youer on the side of the page and the margin refers you to another M where has a different list of five things you look in the back of the he always gives course references to all all so he quotes there different versions there were 25 things that were missing by Shen and it was obvious to the old times remember the that this is a joke the is a joke they said this is this is nothing this not the real B and theim say that there were younger people who never saw the B 70 years old 72 years old they didn't remember anything for so they were dancing and singing rejoicing wonderful and you couldn't hear the singing and the dancing because there were so many oldtimers they with their sobbing and crying they drowned out the voices of the younger people so the was so we understand what the sh was they said there were only three they s to the prophets who are in the should we still cry the crying is over but it's missing so many things they were crying this is nothing as is compared to the that was a that they had so what's the what's the then should they should they continue to observe TSH during the b or not so the no keeps a very obscure answer so the text of the is the first day inas is the fourth month this is the first month the seventh month is that's a reference to 10th month so the refers to them as and then he said they will be celebrated as holidays the Jews will not be observing anymore so the says first first we have different levels of that they have something in between that's recorded in in that's called and theor has in different places take for example in the there's a discussion whether M consider it never says explicitly that you have to read the it says you have to make and say you have to read the but it says the verb is sometimes means to remember and he's air and sometimes the verb means to mention like so the last two words in the don't forget so what need the same thing remember don't forget if if only say that would be sufficient belate not that say me you have to that's what says here also so English we usually translate remember the day of Sabbath to keep it holy thear said that's not the translation not the correct trans means recite KES not to keep it holy to endow the day with where we recite it's when he created the world he Sanctified directly that's why the directly so the inter understands the text gives K to the Jewish people people maybe you put over here gives to the Jewish people we turn and because we declare we're the ones who created so that's why see here also in the it says it doesn't mean that days are remembered it means spoken of the days what do you mean spoken of understand that word is referring to M so obscure so that's a big dispute that considered but it doesn't say you have to read the Mig it says the days on read the it says we do it but it doesn't say you have to read them so that's the question does that qualify to be considered so and comments on every so often he quotes if you were listening to and you're not sure if you missed the word or not from the so we treat like so just like we say many others disagree the has so he says he disagrees he brings R from the that m is not considered you don't go but that's a debate that's a question so the raises a question what did thei tell the people as the answer should they F so first thei refers to the until then it was a minut when he declares elevated to the level two steps already it's not only became recorded in this that have the status then it says have to celebrate then the the next person continues to say only did you first did I tell you to first I didn't tell you I told you to keep Shas and kasas and to be kind to other people and set fre after 6 years apparently a lot of people violated that thing so the nobody says you're doing whatever you want you're not listening to me expression do whatever you don't please you're not listening to me so the said the gave three different answers on the question he says not have to treat like young do whatever you want so what's the de he says talks out the three sides of his mouth not only talk out two sides so the gar explains what it means when you have a b then there's nothing to cry about then you have a and when you have no and there's open persecution against the Jewish people like during the Crusades or during the Nazi era throughout the isra of jewi and they can pums all the time so when you have not just not just that and the ra writes in the raan was a doctor so he wrote whole sa for doctors he quotes all the in the when a doctor is delivering a baby what he allowed to do on shabas we not allow do then he says if they not delivering a baby what if it's an adult who sick what he allowed to do what he not allowed to do what he have to do and explains why he need a gives permission to the doctors to practice this medicine what they need permission for he said because a lot of times the doctors by mistake kill the patients in the first couple of months he fed the doctors were treating the patients wrong incorrectly they were killing some of our best friends were were killed by the doctor the doctors admit they did know how to deal with it so Torah permits doctors to practice medicine according to the best of their knowledge even though there is a possibility strong possibility that they're going to be making mistakes and killing patients that's all of medical uh science was developed over the years trial and error and they see what works and what doesn't work so the first couple of people lose their lives and then they know for next time medicine keeps on changing all the time so the says these are the three when you have to celebrate the young if you're not allowed to fist when there's no there's open persecution then it's so the raan writes in his this is quoted in this paragraph from the raan that the fact that we only fast in the daytime that's because it's optional today but if it would be if you would like say sometimes there that it's the same as you have to f 24 hours and not the reason why if there's a the r the r has a say for Mish so we don't call it Mish we call it because the wrote in his introduction he wrote a say from all you have to do is read the tat and read my savior and you'll know everything there is tell that's a little little too much so there a couple of SW like that we don't call it by it correct we call it the because the Jewish people didn't like that all you have to do is read the so we call it because they're 14 so at the end of each one of this we have chis printed in the ram you have chis M the chis have nothing to do with the rambam whatever let's say whatever the topic is and the r they tell you what T has to say the je have nothing to do with the the bottom of the page also has nothing to do with the he tells you what the have to say about this they hardly ever talk a word about the RA in the bottom of the page in the so in the in the back of one of the about someone fasting on so he says if would have been today we wouldn't permit the sick person to fast unless there would be a because the that's like fting the only time theree the F if the doctors think at least there of but there no just he's going to be he's going to be he won't be able to function he'll be laying in bed all day long he won't be able to function then he would have to fist on some the reason why we're make today anyone is because of the fting is allowed to eat because it's really it's r because it's optional today whenever you live in a generation where there's no but there's no open persecution against the Jewish people then it's optional to and it's only from the that was written during the period of the that today is no longer optional the has it that we face but it's only so those are the three ofi how come so obscure in thei no right you can't make heads and tails what the answer was why did why did the give such a suggested because when they're not supposed to send the to a to a prophet thecal Rabbi so because they sent the sh says in because they sent the shot in Zar in said they sent the shot to the the prophets who were in The all three had them given a that was so obscure nobody understood it explain what so are not not supposed to be answered by supposed to answer so that's what they said all of the are put together in the person so according to the way you read the person should also be so the writes that in later generations according to what said was the same as the other but they decided to be in the it says that is permitted to eat means a person that can't f normally because he's feastly there a a person is going to be feastly it's going to be suffering from headaches and they have to lay in bed all day long he won't be able to walk around the F to do whatever he would normally do that's the definition of so it says that is permitted to eat onsh so the T has a how does say like that but TSH is not dependent it's not OP it's not that we decided to accept upon ourselves to invest he thinks we shouldn't so the later but he's very strong Ines during the lifetime of the was printed yet so the so the so T didn't have the Raj rash truth of the matter even if it would have been printed during the lifetime the T was a very poor man he hardly had any swarm they say the T was once he only had a with with a two reaz he didn't have any swarm the Shar had every saf in creation plus more had everything had all the Swarm Shar Liv all the that were printed in Greece we know we never even heard of those in today nobody knows what those SW are but the Shak had access to everything Shak died at the age of 40 and knew everything under this unbelievable so the T didn't have even if they would have printed the r the T wouldn't have had the Raj the shot would have had T wouldn't have anything so that's we assume that the of so therefore we don't apply the that has the same DIN and you only allow to eat if it's a say no so that's the story of the sh is in they quote thean in the who says based on the G that if you live in a period of time with this open persecution against the Jewish people then the fting on the is you have to observe all 24 hours and imtion during the second world war they were many who that people not only all 24 hours not to wear shoes and so on now the Jewish nation is at War says only the Jews who live in are considered Jews live are considered that's the they're individuals but CL only that term CL only applies to the Jewish people who live in those is what obligates us to observe all we recite the used to say I remember this ban used to say that the Jews live are not Jewish yeah his understand he didn't believe in K is he claimed to be an atheist probably not true they claimed to be is always quoting the T can be an atheist but he claimed to be he didn't believe in so according to him there's only concept of Cl so he's right CL only applies to the Jews Jew only the Jews the ra writes in one place if there would be ra say is in Arabic so my Arabic is not so great so I rely on the Hebrew translation so NE translation it says if one can visualize that there would be a in Isel and there wouldn't be there wouldn't be 10 Jewish people living in arel there are millions of Jews Living Lord but you not have a minion of 10 Jews living in Israel that means violated his promise to the Jewish people that the Jewish people will always continue doing this the Jews are not part of the Jewish people they have based on assumption Jews have but they're not part of so the many has many different that the only applies in the agricultural only apply in but the nothing to do with agriculture at all still they only apply because those only so this is the story it says that m b started The Siege on towards the end of the ban period so because of that was the beginning of the so because of that they instituted as a mic during the seven years that they would and unless you consider that's you consider the of today it's a little bit peaceful on the borders now but every day there's another P every day there's something else going on so that's the question maybe this is like during the Nazi year maybe this is like during the Crusades that i't heard the r say anything I didn't he any say we should the whole day 24 hours know it everybody's treating it like like regular like all the years okay it's questionable that the has a discussion we have a for over 1500 years we have a fixed calendar I know a thousand years in advance when Russia is going to fall out a thousand years from today we have a whole system but years ago in the days of the T they didn't have a fixed calendar every month Witnesses become say they saw the so uh so it's possible for tishu to fall down on a Friday according to our calendar it never happen the only Titus that turns out once in a while on Friday is so in the days of the what would be the if Tish falls out on Friday so the says it's not proper to fast the whole day on Friday and he ENT at the shabas in a starving mood has a consideration he started it's not right says it's not right to eat fesik on Friday because you take away from from the FES should be on shabas not shabas not right there all discussion what if there's a bris on a shabas so traditionally they always they give flings by bris because it's a day of so what if you have a br on Friday is it permiss to have so the quotes from the sh sh had two r one R would one not if there's a some say only 10 people by the Bri should eat all the others every when whenever there's a br on the other day of the week everyone should have B of if it's on Friday maybe only 10 people should have like in the nine days on N days it says only 10 people should have fles they rather should have other should have power so in the days of the it was possible for Tish to fall out Friday and there's an issue is a proper to fast the whole day so was of the opinion that you should only fast till then you have to break the face you have to eat something once you not enter shabas in a hungry for in a hungry State's opinion was out voted and it's a discussion in AR will you at least why would anybody think to put this discuss belongs in ESS belongs somewhere else that's where it is all know something is and the took all the and they put them in order soical order but then the took the put everything back out of order so you can't find anything unless you know where it is in thear there a lot of that belong lot that belong in other areas also on a lot of times so we that if there's AIS by us the only tonis that ever falls out on on a Friday is what if one has a y site on Friday that's all discussion is a right to fast the whole day should F the half a day so they discuss when was the first time that you had the yide if the first time you have the Y was on a Friday the first year was on Friday so don't fast all day but if you got into the practice of fasting all day on the yard side then maybe after to fast even it's on Friday that's a sh but if let's say falls out on a Friday have to have to f a whole day what the whole day what day till so the says strictly the says there's a period of time in between and we call and we considered that the rabbis couldn't figure out the answer since the rabbis couldn't figure it out so uh many many point there's a in where the liked this very much because picked up on this applies it in many different places and Sal in Europe was always used in America he never he never I don't think he had an so he would always quote he would quote sometimes the he didn't remember whether he said yes or no but remember discusses it so discusses this that of you have to F of the you don't have to F yeah what is that all about so we assume that there's a block of time in between and say that we call what you mean so the has thisd of human M with with says it's not a when is L is it sunset is it 5 minutes later is it 10 minutes later 15 not when is L that period of time that block of time has both elements of Y and OFA it's a whenever there's a you treat it as if it were a s it's not really a it's a t so has this in quite a few different areas you have a t in physics sometimes you have t also they don't understand how can it be what's the nature of electricity is it is it uh I don't remember the whole Sakira they're not sure they don't understand how it work they have so you have in also every so often you have a so the so is bothered with a question the says on all the other except so how come when there's a tonis everybody you're only is right after the so how come we don't eat right away after the tus is up why why does it work why is the Comm prac everybody waits say so is raises the questionus they don't have a good answer they they threw up there they don't know the answer how come the min that everybody still it's famous the has in his commentary have he discusses what is so he quotes that there's in every Friday night we recite 24 this second per so towards the end of the per I never get that for and they say I never get the end but the end there is such a what to do what not allow to do so the there has a dispute between when is so's opinion is like we always think starting from for a block of time 20 minutes 30 minutes sometimes 35 minutes depends what part of the world you live in to determine when is B so there's a whole block of time the whole block of time considered considered disagrees says wrong the first 19 and a half minutes of and the last half a minute is suff suff that's one version the other version is the old 20 minutes of the next half a minute a difference of half a minute when when is when is V when is when is V claims there he says the seems to say that it's whether we pass so if so he said that's the answer to why do we fast all the time you should be allowed to eat allowed to eat it says that is you have to F the whole day till the end of what is the end of the the end of the should be one minute after the that's the end of the the answer is not according to AB one minute after the is already according to we're not sure what the did maybe the din is like R for the first 19 and a half minutes only the next half a minute is going to be the so that's why we have to wait till say so that's what we do I got married uh quite a few years ago this and um at first we didn't have any children and then we decided to visit there the says sometimes you don't have children because they live in Israel and you'll have children didn't have any children till he went there Israel so we decided to go to so we came for a summer and then we were blessed with nine children we didn't need any fertility to blessed with nine children so the first child is a girl she lives in now and she was born Friday night but I was nowhere near house so we were near I was together with another fellow whose wife gave birth to a boy on Friday and my wife did we came to the hospital early and and the doctor looked at my wife he said if you want you can go home but it's not going to help cuz it's going to charge you for today cuz you're going to have the baby for before midnight said mael Relax here stay here so she was staying and then the other fellow was going to go to a friend of his on the Lower East Side we couldn't go back to Washington Heights it was already too late we wouldn't make it so he was going to go to his friends I was going to go with him my wife didn't give birth yet said the doctor say got to be born later in sh is is early this part of the year so I left with the other fell so the fellow that we ate by was a big M so you have to wait till 96 Minutes 96 Minutes you have to fasting all day 96 minut I don't think there's a he was a sh guy he was fting also okay so we suff it along the next day I walked to the hospital I found out my wife had a baby girl but that's that's the common practice we don't follow re's opinion of the opinion since you're not allowed to enter in a hungry State you have a to eat something so the and we don't accept that opinion the whole day strictly speaking only till you reach bashes that's the whole day but because and so why do we wait till so says because we're not so sure when is that's why we have to wait maybe the dinner is like is the last half a minute before so the next half a minute after so we have to wait but it doesn't have to be 96 Minutes much much less than that but there are two that strictly speaking when there's no place and there's no open persecution against the Jewish people then it's optional but all theot from that was written during the period of the before the days of it's a minut that we faceal so what does that mean what exactly does that mean so between and Records the practice of this that the shabas who they say give a blessing to all of the people who are going to and everybody says so when you say like the shabas in the book of says they have a family get together and they had the uh they they were eating and drinking and having a good time and he was afraid maybe they sinned from eating a little too much drinking a little too much so he would always he would always uh try to get a k for the possible say based on that story in that the B instituted a practice of fasting sh Monday Thursday Monday after PES and after sh is only two days so you don't have so much time to do a but p is whole week and all week so afraid maybe we so that's why there's a there was a meaning that you face so how do you face when you to fast you don't have to be if so the so the is that the says the shabas before the first Monday Monday Thursday Monday says give the blessing to all the people who so those who plant they say so they mean when the other people say I may a blessing on the head of those other people who going to face I'm not going to face May yes they should be blessed and those who plant they said on that's what the writes the shabas before that's when it means the Min is that we the on the shabas before so we accepted the the that's not our practice the practice is we not that what's a difference there's a big difference let's say this week on Friday and balabusta is cooking the soup for sh and she doesn't remember if she put in salt on her if she put in some kind of flavoring so she wants to taste a little bit of the soup and spit it out not going to swallow the soup a little bit will will be swallowed with the saliva but she's not interested in that so it says in is she permitted to taste the soup so thear says if the if the B if will be let's say the woman has and she's fasting on so she was and not everybody fast on if after the introduced the movement of anybody the follow the that on the holy is so rejoices so much when this when a pure soul of a sadic comes to heaven like a boy and a girl were engaged for a long time and then they finally get married and they and they're so in love with each other they they're very excited so when has a sadic a person comes back to heaven and he didn't sit in his lifetime and he has a pure Soul rejoices over that Soul like a like the so you eat you drink and you have a party so that's why the Min became most people have a connection with so everybody by they eat the Y they have a su y they don't nobody fast it's very rare that people fast today y I remember when my mother passed away my mother passed away the day after was on shs everybody was fasting on Sunday so my mother my mother passed away on Monday at the night after so the first couple years I fasted then the third year I saw so I said to my father dad what are you supposed to do fast two days and a row my father said herel what are you talking about we don't fast on your father can father York they make a suit make they don't fit see them don't F so the has this then if a person is M took whenever you take a NE what's included what's not included so it depends on the language did you take the net in yish or in English or Hebrew or modern Hebrew Biblical Hebrew Hebrew whatever language you took it in so you have to know in that language what are the what do the words mean theor has long discussions in the middle of the DOR I think there are three broken middle of the dorm if he said this this is included that's s said that all depends so the writes on every that's and the days of the that's what that word meant in Hebrew and Hebrew the words have a different meaning and the then is not necessarily going to be the same then they have in yish and they have if you talk in yish what does this word mean what does that word mean yish Lang changes also all the languages Chang over the years so when they take an what's included what's not included depends what's so the says I'm going to fast it only goes on eating drinking swallowing to taste the food to spit it out that's not included in the so says that's only if you what if it's tin one of so then said then there's no head to to taste the soup so when you look in it says not so the ra is R is consistent and is consistent wrote that the meaning by the is that the shabas before the says says and everybody says we so since the obligation to face because you that's not included in the wordness but the is consistent he writes no we don't have the meaning that we the is has nothing to do with whether we took or not we don't take any now that's what it says these two are interconnected whether the Min istis in advance and whether they all to do not so don't we don't have that that you should be allowed to do the we pray that he should rebuild the Bas that's what is all about they used to be a what is all about in 1948 when they established the Medina here so they quote already lived in arel before the second world war he left he left way before so when they established a Medina he made a comment this is the end of the gas but it's not yet the G so people thought that it was double chalk it it's the end of the gas that's so that's not double talk the end of the go because the British didn't let the Jews come to and now that it's a Jewish government they invite everyone to come ter there's no gas but Gul means when you built the Bas on English well you don't have that's not called the ran writes in his introduction I have when I got married the boys bought me a wedding gift so they bought me aish reprint of the old in Europe so by mistake all the old in Europe have the Ran's introduction to at the end of Fe now they reprint they reset the type so they put the introduction to where belongs the beginning of sh so whichever addition you have you're going to find the raan raan writes is the book of all the beginnings beginning of the world the beginning of mankind the beginning of the Jewish people you get to the end ofas already introduced so you know about the beginnings of the Jewish people then he says the book ofos is the story of the first Gus G and the g then he asked himself what do you me the G there the Gul wasn't until they moov back to wasn't allowed to enter so you don't get to the till way later till after is all over till you get to say forua so ran says wrong it's a tragedy when the Jewish people are not living in erel but that's not the main that's not the main trag main tragedy is that it says a few times when they went out to nobody had any when you get to the end read read the fours about the once they built the that is the that's the so usually think doesn't go means that the was the first 12 days was built in says will begin bringing in the started from doesn't say what year but it says that special will be brought started from till after suus 6 and a half months so the malim has an interesting comment in the end of he says in the days the last seven days when built the first place said they celebrated so I always thought that it meant they celebrated seven days and then they celebrated sukus for seven days so the M doesn't learn like that he thinks they celebrated for two weeks then when they built the second says that they celebrated for three weeks so he gives a whole one week two weeks three weeks then he continues with his the end of to explain why is it why is he going to be six and a half months he says some complicated but that's what it mean the Mish was complet will be in this does mean didn't happen in this the is g to be that's what we pray for we shouldn't have to fast anymore and we should be during our lifetime to see the so first of all we want to thank once again Rabbi wine and Rabbi Kingsburg the entire kahila for opening their doors to the U I also want to acknowledge that the shear was dedicated this evening by sari and schom dren and loving memory of s's father Mr Joe pans on the occasion of his yard site this which is I think the 11th of T we're going to D what shabas right and we're going to dive in we're going to dive Mar in a few moments and uh rash as usual will be available um to speak with people afterwards as well